There has been proposed an inverted pendulum type vehicle which has a base body assembled with a travelling motion unit capable of travelling on a floor surface, an actuator which drives the travelling motion unit and a loading part which is freely tiltable with respect to the perpendicular direction and is used for transporting an object. For example, the present applicant proposes vehicles capable of functioning as the inverted pendulum type vehicle (Refer to Published PCT International Application WO/2008/132778 (Patent Document 2) and Published PCT International Application WO/2008/132779 (Patent Document 3)). In order to maintain a tilt angle of the loading part at a desired tilt angle (to prevent the loading part from tilting and falling down), it is necessary to move the travelling motion unit by displacing a fulcrum of the inverted pendulum in the inverted pendulum type vehicle.
Therefore, a control technology of the inverted pendulum type vehicle had been proposed by the present applicant (Refer to Japanese Patent No. 3070015 (Patent Document 1).
Specifically, the control subject is an inverted pendulum type vehicle in which a base body thereof assembled with a payload supporting part for transporting an occupant serving as the loading part is provided in such a way that it is freely tiltable about two axes, specifically one axis in a longitudinal direction and the other axis in a lateral direction, with respect to the travelling motion unit having a ball shape. A driving torque of a motor is sequentially determined so as to approximate a difference between a measured value of a tilt angle of the base body (=tilt angle of the payload supporting part) and a desired tilt angle and a difference between a measured value of a velocity of the motor as an actuator unit (and consequently a travelling velocity of the travelling motion unit) and a desired velocity to 0. Thereafter, the travelling motion of the travelling motion unit is controlled via the motor according to the determined driving torque.